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WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

nautil.us

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Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#131

Post by voidpointercast »

chipperyman573 wrote: post #122
avip wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a habit and an addiction. But among the available addictions it’s one of the best.

>But among the available addictions it’s one of the best. Why do you feel that way? I've never been a big coffee drinker (for this reason specifically), but everything I've heard about caffeine withdrawals for people who have been daily drinkers for a while is that they are awful - headaches, irritability, extreme fatigue, etc...

The withdrawals are unpleasant but certainly manageable. A good week and you're effectively detoxxed, two and your brain is reset. Moreover, as long as you refrain from adding sugar/sweetener to your coffee it's closer to a benign habit than an addiction, as black coffee has little to no downsides if your heart is ok.

This is coming from a pot/day drinker who's 'quit' multiple times. In the end it's not worth it, because coffee also comes with the pleasant social contract with other coffee drinkers as well as a appetite suppressing effect.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#132

Post by close04 »

yborg wrote: post #79
sergiomattei wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh... What? It's the reason Starbucks exists. People are on the go, and they don't want to make their own coffee. This is literally the same as going to the corner coffee shop to buy a Frappuccino.

If the corner coffee shops took 26 minutes to get me a cup of coffee I'd probably have to give it up entirely if I was really too lazy to spend the 90 seconds of effort in my kitchen that gives me a cup of coffee in about 5 minutes.

> It arrives at 9:53

If you can count on that arrival time (within minutes), you can just time it so it coincides with you getting out the door. No need to worry about forgetting the pot on the stove, or noisy grinders, etc. It's more likely you'll make a mistake in the morning especially if you're not a morning person and you're still half asleep and in a hurry.

There's something for everyone.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#133

Post by varjag »

low_poly_shiba wrote: post #128
varjag wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government unfriendly is simply not an option in China. It's endearing how "but the USA" crowd is out of touch with reality.

what are your sources of info, so that the "but the USA" crowd can learn about your reality?

First hand living experience in a communist, and then authoritarian post-communist, country.

And before you say not all communist are alike and you can't generalize… yeah no, they are quite alike and you can generalize. Anyone who lived in any of them knows exactly what guanxi and other social concepts mean, the cultures are remarkably cookie-cutter.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#134

Post by michaelsattler »

adinobro wrote: post #17

A few things worth being aware of Alibaba does not own WeChat but rather's it's competition Alipay. It does not have any access to WeChat data. So far the "social credit" on seems to be mostly based on how much you buy and it only seems to give you discounts to massively overpriced products (similar to a credit card reward system). You don't really download apps in Wechat but rather add a link more like a Facebook Ap…

With MiniApps you do download apps. When I was at Nike last year we rolled out into that ecosphere.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#135

Post by meddlepal »

bamboozled wrote: post #63
th3iedkid wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Is it too much effort to just make your own coffee in your own apartment? Does that now also have to be delivered to you? The amount of waste involved in this just boggles my mind. Not from China but have been different phases of life where have either preferred to have early morning coffe delivered/fetched/made myself in my apartment. Different priorities would drove the choices for me. Pricing differences between…

I’m curious, do people even enjoying drinking nice / real coffee anymore when drinking from Starbucks or have it delivered and sipping it at your desk or in the elevator, or is this just some kind of habit like smoking? Why not just wash down a caffeine pill with warm glass of water for the kick and move when time pressed?

I drink Dunkin' Donuts coffee because I don't give a damn about the taste and it's cheap. I like the process of drinking coffee... it's a habit of sorts. Not so much an addiction as I have no problems going without coffee.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#136

Post by low_poly_shiba »

varjag wrote: post #133
low_poly_shiba wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what are your sources of info, so that the "but the USA" crowd can learn about your reality?

First hand living experience in a communist, and then authoritarian post-communist, country. And before you say not all communist are alike and you can't generalize… yeah no, they are quite alike and you can generalize. Anyone who lived in any of them knows exactly what guanxi and other social concepts mean, the cultures are remarkably cookie-cutter.

Americans, and people living in American colonies, also have first-hand experience with American imperialism. I'm not sure why you think your experience trounces theirs?

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#137

Post by amelius »

meddlepal wrote: post #135
bamboozled wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious, do people even enjoying drinking nice / real coffee anymore when drinking from Starbucks or have it delivered and sipping it at your desk or in the elevator, or is this just some kind of habit like smoking? Why not just wash down a caffeine pill with warm glass of water for the kick and move when time pressed?

I drink Dunkin' Donuts coffee because I don't give a damn about the taste and it's cheap. I like the process of drinking coffee... it's a habit of sorts. Not so much an addiction as I have no problems going without coffee.

May I then suggest drinking water instead? It's healthier and even cheaper.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#138

Post by rconti »

yborg wrote: post #79
sergiomattei wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh... What? It's the reason Starbucks exists. People are on the go, and they don't want to make their own coffee. This is literally the same as going to the corner coffee shop to buy a Frappuccino.

If the corner coffee shops took 26 minutes to get me a cup of coffee I'd probably have to give it up entirely if I was really too lazy to spend the 90 seconds of effort in my kitchen that gives me a cup of coffee in about 5 minutes.

It's very easy to spend 15 minutes every time you go to Starbucks. It's not my thing (I mostly drink free coffee at work, from my espresso machine at home, choose other coffee shops, or if I must use Starbucks, I place a mobile order). But the lines tend to be very long, and it takes a long time to get a beverage. I guess people don't mind it because it's a part of the day, a break, a 'treat'. I find it a hassle, but in a way if it's part of your 30 minute coffee break from work, maybe it's not so bad.

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#139

Post by rconti »

adinobro wrote: post #17

A few things worth being aware of Alibaba does not own WeChat but rather's it's competition Alipay. It does not have any access to WeChat data. So far the "social credit" on seems to be mostly based on how much you buy and it only seems to give you discounts to massively overpriced products (similar to a credit card reward system). You don't really download apps in Wechat but rather add a link more like a Facebook Ap…

It's crazy to me that they decided to ALSO use a 950 max score. Like, you couldn't have been SLIGHTLY creative and made it out of 1000, or 100?

Re: WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

#140

Post by canada_dry »

What's better... being in China knowing that everything you do is being watched, or living elsewhere and just suspecting that everything you do is being watched by some three letter agency?

> (Tencent declined to comment for this article)

More likely: (I didn't dare to request comment from Tencent or my social credit score would have plummeted).

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